


Life Lessons

by tjnstlouismo



Category: Starfighter (Comic)
Genre: Angst, Cussing, Emotions, Face Slapping, Graphic Violence, M/M, Mpreg, Name Calling, Sasha being awful, Underage Sex, oral rape, question of consent, rough birth, upset parent
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-08
Updated: 2013-10-13
Packaged: 2017-12-28 20:28:44
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 22
Words: 4,858
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/996226
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tjnstlouismo/pseuds/tjnstlouismo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Life is all about the lessons we learn. </p>
<p>Warning! This story deals with underage sex, both partners are underage. It also contains a violent moment between parent and teen. There is no excuse for the lack of control but most of us parents have either had or come close to this moment. Even good parents fail once in a while. The story centers on mpreg. I'm not a fan of mpreg but it was nessessary to tell this story. The judgements made of the pregnant teen are based on true story's from friends of mine from the 60's and 70's, from schools and from the teaching hospital I first worked in. I'm afraid they are real. </p>
<p>Please do not read this story if you are triggered easily. I won't be offended and I would rather you took care of yourself than be upset by my words. For those of you who do choose to read it, thank you.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. One

**Author's Note:**

  * For [A2Mom](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=A2Mom).



> So it has been a while since I've posted, writers block is a bitch. The format of the story is different for me, so please don't hate me or if you do, please keep it to yourself!
> 
> This story is for my good friend, A2Mom. Even though I am not a Praxis fan, she is, so I wrote this for her. I hope you like it, A2!
> 
> Everything belongs to Hamlet Machine!

The first time Aleks mother slapped him, he figured he deserved it. But not for the reason she did.

"Aleks!" she had drawn back her hand and screamed at him. He cringed but didn't move away. "You little slut! Was it that Sasha?!" Blood sprayed from the split in his lip as her hand, the same one that patted his head before he went to bed, cracked across his cheek and caught his lip with the ring his father had put there sixteen years ago. "Does that bastard belong to that fucking piece of shit?! You tell me right now, Aleks!"

He backed up as she raised her hand again and put his hands up to protect his broken face. "Please mama!" he cried then, frightened by the vehemence in her voice, the bright anger in her eyes. His mother stepped back as well, dropped her hand and hugged her arms to herself.

"Aleks, how could you?" she whispered as she slowly shook her head at him.

　


	2. Two

"How did this happen, malchik moy*?" his mother, calmer now after a strong coffee with a thimble full of vodka stirred in. "Did he force you?"

Aleks held a rag with some ice to his lip but didn't look at her, couldn't answer her. The sigh he held back escaped and answered for him.

"Did that degenerate piece of shit rape you, Aleks? Did he _rape_ you?” She was upset again, her voice rose to a demanding shrill as she sat up and slapped her hand to the kitchen table where they sat and faced each other. Aleks jumped as the table vibrated under his arms where he rested as he slumped forward. He was so tired. So tired.

He shook his head once, then again more firmly, his black bangs falling over his face. He stared at the door to the kitchen and wondered if Sasha's lanky tan body would ever slumped again in its frame, cigarette held at the corner of his mouth; his feral eyes boring holes into him.

"You just opened your legs for him, Aleks?"

　

　

　

　

　

*My little boy


	3. Three

He felt his thin mattress compress and her hand pull his quilt up over his shoulder. He turned and met his mother's eyes. They were red rimmed and her cheeks were wet.

"I'm sorry I hit you, Aleks." she said quietly, her words rough as she forced them out. "I love you, miliy moy*. Forgive mama."

Aleks sat up and threw his skinny arms around her, sank his head into her chest as he murmured his apologies. "I am so sorry, mama, so sorry!" She held him tightly while he burst apart from fear and despair, patted his back and shushed him. 

After a while, he calmed and they just rocked in silence as the sun went down and his room darkened. He sniffled then hiccupped and then asked, "What do I do now, mama?"

She firmly pushed him back, fingers wrapped around his arms to hold him in front of her. "Have you told Sasha?" Aleks grimaced and shook his head no, he was afraid to. He was afraid to know the truth. Sasha had told him he loved him but he had not made any promises when he held Aleks down and slid roughly into him.

"Then we ask Sasha what he's going to do about this mess that he made."

　


	4. Four

"You can't prove it’s mine. How do I know you haven't been offering it up to half the school?" Sasha sneered. He angrily stubbed his cigarette out in the dish Aleks had given him when he had ignored Aleks' pleas to not smoke in his mother’s kitchen.

“You know I haven’t, Sasha.” Aleks was in tears, he hadn’t even wanted to tell Sasha but his mother said if he didn’t, she would and she would report it to the authorities. Aleks was mortified enough; he didn’t want anyone to know.

Sasha snorted, “Tch, you’re such a fucking stupid slut.” Aleks flinched as if he had been hit again. Sasha’s chair skittered across the floor as Sasha abruptly stood up and pushed it away. “So, have a happy life, I’m outta here!”

Aleks grabbed for Sasha, caught the back of his shirt and for one moment, Sasha turned around and stared down at Aleks' hand then raised his eyes.  He raised his eyes and pulled himself out of Aleks’ grasp.

“What?”

Aleks swallowed, sniffed, and pulled his hand back then balled them into his pockets.

“You know I was a virgin, you know that, Sasha.” he rocked a little on the balls of his feet. “You said you loved me.”

They were both startled at Sasha’s brutal laugh. Aleks could hear his heart shatter inside his chest, He couldn’t breathe as Sasha yanked open the door.

“No, I said I loved _fucking_ you.”


	5. Chapter 5

It’s not as if he hadn’t known Sasha couldn’t take care of himself. Let alone another human being. Let alone a child.

He'd known the moment Sasha searched for something. As he settled himself between Aleks’ skinny legs, pulled them over his shoulders and pushed determinedly into him.  Seduced by what comfort he found there; he ignored Aleks as he begged.

Hurts Sasha, wait Sasha, please Sasha, please Sasha. Please.

Aleks knew all about Sasha way before he came, before it boiled up out of his balls and exploded onto the wall along side of his bed as Sasha twisted him until he was on his side. At the end, there wasn’t any relentless thrusting. Sasha simply pulled and pushed Aleks by his hips, up and down his cock. His eyes blown by his lust, not hearing Aleks cry out sharply.

Aleks understood what the cigarettes and matchbook left behind meant. Even knowing everything about Sasha, his stomach could not hold it all in when the truths bubbled up out of Sasha's mouth.

Aleks flushed away the bitter bile. He couldn't cry for himself but wept for the child denied.


	6. Chapter 6

They didn't want his mother in the little cubical when the doctor came in. If he wasn't exposed enough through his splayed out legs, the doctors disgruntled clicking when his mother stood her ground and refused to leave, made his eyes well with tears.

He gasped as the doctor shoved gloved fingers into him, moving them until his stomach rolled and threatened him. He ground his teeth to the sudden cramps as time slowed. His mother squeezed his hand as the doctor roughly pulled out; reminded him of Sasha; peeled off his glove and threw it towards the trash. He bent over the chart in front of him and scribbled Aleks’ life story.

He was half-way out the door when Aleks mother spoke up, "Doctor?" The doctor stopped but didn't turn back to them.

"There is an opening Tuesday." Aleks sat up suddenly panicked, his voice trembled as he whispered. "Mama?"

"No." She responded and touched the doctors arm. He turned, looked at her hand on his forearm, then traveled up and met her eyes. He scowled. His mama didn't let go.

"There's no call for bastard colony babies, it’s more humane to just get rid of it." He pulled his arm out of her grasp and stroked his hands down to smooth his white coat then glared at Aleks but didn‘t look at his mother.

"Mama?" Aleks knew how to beg, Sasha had taught him well.


	7. Chapter 7

When he began to show, round little bump under his belly button, that even his fathers button down shirts wouldn't hide, they told him he couldn't come back to school.

Actually what the nun said was "Little whores are not allowed among the sainted innocents."

Sasha snorted from the back of the classroom. Aleks held his head up as he gathered his books and walked out.


	8. Chapter 8

He named her one morning in the shower as he washed his belly and she kicked him. Later, much later, he would find out it was because she loved the sound of rain, but right then he just ran his hands over her and whispered.

"Shhh, Lyubov, little girl, let me wash us." She kicked him again as the water started to go cold. Aleks smiled broadly and rinsed his hair in the cooling water. Shivering as he stepped into the small room, he toweled himself and then wrapped them in the warm white robe his mother had given him at Christmas.

He glanced up at the clock in the kitchen as he stood and drank the last of the orange juice. His mother had left it for him earlier than the sun gets up, on her way to work. He would need to go to the grocery if his prenatal credits loaded today. Lyubov kicked him and Aleks rubbed at her again, "Ok, apple next time."


	9. Chapter 9

"This is for you, Aleks." His mother handed him the thin white envelope as she flipped through the bills and ads from the mail. Aleks froze.

His mother glanced up at her son; gone pale as he bit at his lower lip. She cocked her head and pushed the envelope towards him. "If you can have a baby, you can open an envelope, Aleks."

"What if they want to take the baby, mama?" Aleks swallowed, suddenly nauseous and glanced from the envelope to his mother. His mother swung her arm around his shoulder and hugged him to her. "Sweetheart, the school district doesn't want your baby." Aleks' eyes grew big as he studied the envelope.

"Silly boy,” she laughed at him gently and rubbed his arm. “What does it say?"

Aleks smiled back at her.

"They are sending a tutor."


	10. Chapter 10

Martin looked around the well kept apartment. It was old, but what in the colonies wasn’t? Apartments lasted longer than the people who dwelled there.

The windows had all their glass and were covered with not only old wooden blinds but also drapes in the front room and curtains in the kitchen. The kitchen was warm and smelled like his mothers. There was a pie on a rack on the counter and the teakettle was hot and steaming. Underneath the long black bangs were icy grey eyes and pink cheeks. Martin wasn't sure if he had been outside in the chilly autumn air or was embarrassed by the round bump under his shirt. The boy, his student, stood by a chair at the kitchen table, his books and papers neatly stacked, a sharpened pencil laid in wait.

The mother looked like his, tired and older than she was. Unlike his mother, this one wore a warm smile. When he reached out his hand, she took it with no hesitation. "Nice to meet you, Ma'am, I'm Martin." She stepped aside and reached for the boy.

“Nice to meet you as well, Martin, this is Aleks. We are glad you are here."

Aleks looked up at him and then away. Martin blinked.


	11. Chapter 11

Aleks wondered if Martin's mother knew what his name meant when she named him. She couldn't have known about his Roman nose that complimented the strong square jaw and thin lips. Martin said his grandfather named him, a family tradition. Martin said his name was a family name but he didn't think a young man should be saddled with it. Martin said it was a name to grow into, an old man's name. Martin said he hated it.

Before.

Before Aleks whispered it in his darkened living room, cups of cooled cocoa on the coffee table next to the little candles whose lights cast their shadows on the wall behind them. Before Aleks let him shyly put his fingers under the big flannel shirt and he moved them like butterflies over the sweet rise of his belly. Before Lyudov reached out to him and asked if he was going to stay. Before he pushed into Aleks’ pink lips, swollen and lush like the bump that was Lyudov. Before.


	12. Chapter 12

It wasn't like mama to knock, although she had taken to calling out their names before she got too far into the apartment.

"Ok, ok, I give up! You have to tell me the answer!" He laughed and turned his head towards the kitchen and Martin as he pulled open the door. "Mama why...."

Whatever he was going to say fell out of his mouth and plopped in the doorway that Sasha leaned into: cigarette hung out the corner of his mouth. “You going to invite me in, baby?"

Martin was there between them, suddenly as if he had just teleported into the doorway. "Go back to the kitchen, Aleks." He never turned around; his voice smoothed the tenseness between them. Before Aleks could breathe the smoke in to pass on to Lyubov, he fled to the kitchen. He bent over the sink, his lunch at the back of his throat. Not sure if it was Sasha or if it was Sasha's smoke that made him want to vomit. He swallowed furiously.

"You can't smoke in here, its bad for Lyubov." The wall of Martin stood between Sasha and Aleks.

He felt Sasha scrutinized him. Martin knew the way Sasha ran his eyes up and down Martin's body that he wondered if he could take him. Of course, he thought he could take him.

"I smoke where I _want_ and I do what I _want_ and who the _fuck_ are you?" Sasha feigned right but Martin was right there with him as if it was a dance.

"What do you want?"

Aleks could hear the calm in Martin's voice and the threat. Sasha wasn't so sure of himself now. Aleks wasn’t so sure that Sasha understood the threat.

"Hey baby, tell this clown that you're my _girl_!” Sasha tried to see around Martin and catch Aleks’ eyes.  Aleks looked at the cool white tiles against the backsplash and thought he really would vomit.

Martin leaned across the doorframe, ducking down to look directly in Sasha's eyes.

"Go home."

Sasha backed away, startled by the growl Martin made as he spit out the words. Sasha shook his head as if he had been sucker punched. He came right back, red faced. From between his clenched teeth, he sputtered. "That's my kid, fucking asshole; you can't keep me from my kid!" He glared through Martin right into Aleks heart.

"You can't keep me from my kid, bitch."


	13. Chapter 13

Lyubov did not like his sobs. She did not like the hitch in his breath. She did not like how he trembled.

"Hey little girl," Martin crooned to Alexs' stomach. His arms wrapped around thin arms; held him tight to his shoulder; petted the soft black hair "Don't kick me, I'm not the bad guy!" Aleks giggled and blew a snot bubble across Martins jacket.

"Oh Martin," he wiped the jacket and fisted it to pull Martin closer.


	14. Chapter 14

In the last few weeks, Aleks borrowed Martin’s shoes. He swam in them, tripping enough that his mother laid all their blankets and quilts on the floor in case he went to ground.

Aleks was uncomfortable. He couldn't sleep in his bed, only the couch gave him some support. His back ached. She had flipped and lodged her head down deep into his pelvis and liked to stretch out her full length to kick at his ribs. She slept during the day when he was awake and was awake all night when he was so tired he cried for relief. Then she would get mad and pound away at anything near her feet until Martin curled over Aleks’ belly and sang to her. She liked Martin.

It was almost time. Aleks had forgotten to think about how his daughter was to get out of her belly home. The doctor, another one he had never seen before, had handed him a flyer on a labor class at the local hospital and Martin had signed them up.

Aleks never asked why him. He understood that he had not protected himself with Sasha but still he didn't understand why this had happened to him. He rolled around theories like cheerio’s, one day sure he was being punished then the next day believing that he was being used for some great mystical plan and he was birthing a savior. Mostly he didn't think about it.

He was sitting on cushions at his kitchen table practicing his spelling for the quiz Martin had promised in a few days when his water broke and ruined Martin's shoes. Martin jumped out of his chair, threw it backwards as the splatters formed a puddle underneath the table. Aleks’ eyes were big and bright and never so lovely Martin thought as he knelt by Aleks side and made promises.


	15. Chapter 15

It was not the hardest thing he would have to do in his life but he didn't know that yet. All of his fifteen years swelled up to these moments of twelve hours of begging. It began with begging and it ended with begging even though at the end, his voice harsh and raw, only she could hear the begging in his head.

They let his mother stay until he stopped cooperating and then they shut her out and tied him down with his legs apart. When his body threw everything off that wasn't baby, they let him lay cold and shivering in his own vomit and urine. When he pleaded for a blanket, the nurse snorted at him like Sasha had.

"You sure didn't think about being _uncomfortable_ when you opened your legs for him to put it in you!" the nurse sneered as another contraction started to rip him open. "Ever think this is the Father’s way of makin’ sure you don't do it again, you little tramp?"

Aleks was sure he wasn't being punished. However, at times he was sure they would die before she came. 

All the nurse told Aleks' mother was that it was a girl and she could pick Aleks up tomorrow. Aleks mother shook her head and grasped Martins hand. Martin stood up, walked into Aleks’ room where he ignored the bloody sheets and the restraints that still held him down. The nurse barked at him to get out as the doctor pulled the needle through Aleks’ skin to close it.

"I won’t leave again.” 


	16. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was supposed to be 17 little chapters but late last night I realised I had forgotten something important.

Aleks was not religious but every night he prayed over his baby as she slept. "Please bless my little child." Every night.

His mother never asked Aleks to get a job to help. She also didn't refuse the money Martin snuck into her purse to pay for things Aleks' meager state stipend wouldn't cover. There was no blood in the turnip Sasha, so the begrudged credits came every month from the state to feed his baby and keep her well.

Aleks hated the long wait in their office every month along with the other burdens on society that sat hunched over and beaten beside him.

Lyubov smiled before Martin came up the steps to the front door. She fussed if he paused to kiss Aleks and didn't pick her up first. Martin got smiles and bubbles and papa got jealous scowls.

His mother watched the three of them one evening. It was winter; Martin was blue from his walk from the bus stop in a thin coat and cheap canvas shoes. Aleks was wrapped around him as Lyubov clenched his coat. Martin kissed one head then the other. He looked up at Aleks' mother and smiled with his heart.

"Martin, come to the kitchen and sit by the stove." she said. "Aleks, get Martin your father's robe."

Martin sat where she told him to, warmed his hand on the mug of hot tea she handed him, and closed his eyes for a moment to smell the stew and baked bread she had waiting in the oven.

"Martin, we need to talk."


	17. Chapter 17

Martin wore his best blue shirt and new shoes.

After the judge said the words, after they made their promises, after they washed wedding cake crumbs out of Lyubov's hair, after they settled underneath the new quilt Martin's grandmother and aunts had made for them, Martin's lips whispered his promises again.

Aleks fell asleep to the rhythm of Martin's blood.


	18. Chapter 18

Lyubov was almost three when the Colteron's laid waste to Colony 7. Three weeks later Martin’s number was pulled at the general draft. Aleks enlisted with him.

His mother was more furious than the night he had told her that he was pregnant. He packed his small bag as she railed on and on about him leaving her, leaving his daughter. Dying and making his daughter an orphan. Then she turned to Martin who stood in the doorway with Lyubov on one hip, her quivering lips sucking on her fat thumb while she looked woefully from gramma to papa. Martin reached down and nuzzled under her ear but she wouldn’t take her eyes away.

"Martin, please, tell him to stop this nonsense!" His mother pulled out the big guns, took Lyubov from him, and wrapped her arms around the little girl as she rocked side to side. Martin wrapped his long arms around the defeated woman and the sweet baby he thought of as his.

"Mama, he needs to be a man for his daughter." Martin kissed the top of her head.  She grasped his shirt, pulled him to her as she begged.


	19. Chapter 19

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My thanks to ASocialConstuct for her story Basic, which I borrowed from for this chapter. 
> 
> WARNING: This chapter has major triggers for oral rape and graphic violence. Its important to the story, but please my friends, pass it by if it might upset you.

"Tch, where's your dog, bitch?"

Aleks didn't turn around. He breathed in smoke through his nose and out through his mouth. The water in the shower was still warm, soap still in his hair.

There was no easy path back to Martin. Sasha had been paying attention while Aleks let himself believe he just didn't notice.

While they had worked themselves to the middle, 37 and 33 respectively, they had embraced a false sense of forgettable. The shock of Sasha standing in the same line of draftee's and volunteers as they were, as he leered and sliced his hand across his throat, made them careful. Nevertheless, they thought he had forgotten them as he fucked and fought his way up to the single digits. Sasha became dangerous, they just didn’t think...well, they just didn’t think.

Aleks didn’t know that razor blades don’t cause pain at first. The standard issue blades caused lovely red canyons but Aleks didn’t notice them until Sasha licked his neck from behind and Aleks looked into the water pooling at his feet.

When the river ran red, Aleks prayed Martin’s promises.

“I will never leave you.”

A labyrinth was carved across his back.

“I will never hurt you.”

Ribbons were carved into the arms that he threw up to save his face.

“I will always protect you.”

Spider webs were carved into the thighs that belonged to Martin.

“I will love you to my last breath.”

On his knees with Sasha’s cock down his throat and the razor blade at his throat, Aleks prayed. “Please bless my little child.” He could see her under the pink quilt he had made for her, asleep on her knees, little round behind stuck up in the air. Martin and he would watch her and marvel at how she could possibly sleep that way.  Martin would tease him and tell him that she must have gotten that from her papa and Aleks’ cheeks would burst into flame. It was their life, their very simple life.

The drain was clogged now with his blood. He wondered how he would get it back into his body.

　

　


	20. Chapter 20

The frozen heat from the morphine chased the white, hot flames that blossomed in the canyons and rivers left behind. Terrible whispers were all that was left of his ragged throat. Thankfully, he would not know any of it until much later.

Martin, his fingers around Aleks' ankles, laid his head on the only skin he dare caress. He wasn't sure Aleks could feel him but he kissed the tops of his feet anyway.

"I am so sorry, lyubImaya moya*." he wept.　

　

　

　

*my sweetheart


	21. Chapter 21

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, my thanks to ASocialConstruct as I steal from Basic once more.

Martin made love to him with his words for the next week or so. He kissed Aleks’ smooth white feet and pled for forgiveness. The day Aleks pulled his feet away from his mouth and giggled was the day that Martin began to breathe again.

It didn't matter to the Alliance how many times a fighter fell headfirst down the barracks stairs. As long as they could fly when Basic ended, justice would have to come at the wrong end of a 'Teron gun. 

Aleks wove his fingers through Martin’s as they smiled over the latest picture of Lyubov sent from Aleks mother. She held tight the little grey kitten that was taking their places for now.

Martin decided he would trust fate to judge Sasha.

　

********************************************************************************************

Assignments came the day Basic was finished with them.

They had not been promised to be assigned together, but somehow they were. Restitution perhaps from Eight as he was responsible for fucking Sasha up the ranks and probably for the second and third trip down the barracks stairwell.

Aboard their first ship, they were renamed and paired with navigators. The navigators were more than grateful to switch rooms but not grateful enough to refuse Martin's meager savings to keep their mouth's shut. Aleks wondered if perhaps they had looked forward to being used by their fighters. Aleks didn’t care, Martin belonged to him.

　

Aleks sat on one of the beds and watched Martin move them in, unpack their duffels, hang their uniforms in the little closet, their underwear in the chest of drawers. Aleks watched him set their shave kits and toothbrushes in the head. Aleks watched him until there was nothing left to do and Martin panted as if he had run for miles. 

"My husband." Aleks whispered, voice shattered and strained. Martin fell to his knees and wove his arms around Aleks waist, careful not to cross the lines of the labyrinth on his back.

"Pozhaluysta, prosti menya*." Martin begged. "I failed you."

Aleks ran his fingers through Martin's soft black hair, down his strong nose and square jaw. "No, moy lyubovnik*, moy voin*. You saved me."

　

　

　

*Please, forgive me.

*My lover, my warrior.

　

.


	22. Chapter 22

Deimos sat straight up in the bed, blinked several times. Something had woken him. 

He had heard something he thought to himself as he sank back down to his dreams. Then his vidcom chirped again and Praxis moaned then threw out his arm in the general direction of the phone. "Shhh, I'll get it, go back to sleep, love."

Deimos crawled over him, reached to the shelf just beyond the bed. He flipped the vidcom on then scrunched up his nose as the brightness dazzled him. “It’s Lyubov, husband!” he rasped. His voice was always rougher after he slept.

Praxis began to sit up and at the same time pulled him into his lap. Deimos warmed by the big hand that stroked his back then his waist then his ass. The familiar comfort soothed him. He startled when his daughters face appeared on the screen, pushing Praxis's hand away from his ass, fingers dipped into the crease of his ass. He felt his husband’s smile. 

"How are you, devochka moya*?” Praxis was sitting up now and pulled at Deimos wrist so he could to see the blue-black ringlets and dark blue eyes that stared intently into the screen. "Hi Nana!" she squealed. Deimos glared at him and yanked the phone back. "What's going on sweetheart is gramma alright?" Praxis pulled him back into his lap by his hips and hung his head over Deimos shoulder. "Hi baby girl, did you get my present?" The curls went everywhere as she nodded up and down. "Yes nana, it made gramma scream! It was fun!"

"What did you send her?" Deimos whispered and elbowed Praxis him off screen. "Oof, I'll tell you later, love." Deimos shook his head at Praxis and then brought his face back to the screen. "Why did you call baby girl?" he asked again and laid back against Praxis’s chest. He closed his eyes as Praxis leaned down to kiss the top of his head.

"I just wanted to tell you that I love you and nana so much, papa!" Her voice was breathy like the wings of angels; it reached right into his chest to squeeze his heart. Praxis wrapped his arms around him in a tight cocoon. Sweet warm lips pressed into his neck then the top of his shoulder.

"Ah, Lyubov, you are such a milaya devushka*" he choked out. She was so small, so far away from him. "Papa loves you very much too."

"Nana too, dorogoy*!" Praxis smacked kisses at the little screen.

Red lips crusted with milk and something else, kissed the screen, Deimos brought it to his lips as well. "Time for school big girl, we love you, kiss gramma for us!"

Little fingers fluttered their goodbye then the light ended and left them in darkness.

Martin turned Aleks in his arms as he settled him across his broad chest. He petted his hair until Aleks was soft and pliant; safe.

"Tell me your promises again." Aleks whispered into the darkness.

　

　

*my little girl

*sweet girl

*darling

　

　


End file.
